Chaos is (not) our Friend (?) - Editing for Clarity
Purpose - This handout and exercise is designed get students to consider, and read
for, clarity. Use it if careless errors in student drafts preclude comprehension.
Description - Copy and distribute the following handout. In groups or as individuals,
students read an example of discombobulated writing and work on making the text
coherent. A great exercise to pair with the McGraw Hill Handbook.
Time Suggested - 30 minutes to a full 50 minute class period.
Procedure - Copy and distribute the following paragraph:
"Whenever I’m getting reading to eat my cat is always at my feet at the stove I am
always tripping over him and swearing at him nevertheless he is such a funny creature
how many cats can eat artichokes correctly after all when my husband cooks the
kitchen smells of strong erotic spices from what I have incorrectly called the middle
east but now I refer to as south asian I didn’t know the difference and was
embarrssed to realize I was referring to an actual incontinent incorrectly no matter
how hard I try I haven’t been able to reproduce his best dishes but then he does have
the benefit of spending most of his life in pakistan where do we get hour specialty
spices I bet your wondering but to my surprise it hasn’t been difficult to find a decent
ethnic grocery store all you need to do is look in the yellow pages hey theirs a novel
idea you wouldnt believe how fresh and inexpensive the foods at these stores are
when we shop at our favorite store rhythyms of india the owners know now us they
often encourage us to buy the most recent shipment of goat meat I wasnt really crazy
about that curry but love makes you do crazy things like happily married people
everywhere we compromise when it is about something important we talk and
sometimes agree to disagree though youve got to be yourself right"
Assemble students into groups, or allow them to work as individuals, perhaps with the
handbook for reference. As them to consider the example of discombobulated writing:
without proper capitalization, spelling and punctuation, we might unintentionally
create potentially embarrassing sentences. Tell them to see what they can do about
fixing the mess below.
Follow-up by going over the paragraph with the entire class, asking students/groups
to "solve" each sentence on the board - or have several students/groups offer their
solutions together and evaluate them as a class.
Additional Information - If you notice your groups struggling with particular
grammatical rules, revise the example to contain a number of these types of errors.
Consider assigning readings from the McGraw Hill Handbook in preparation for this
class exercise.